


The Selkie Boy

by blacktail_chorus



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Poetry, Seafaring AU, Selkies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:29:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11893902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktail_chorus/pseuds/blacktail_chorus
Summary: In a village by the sea there lived a merchant's sonWho spent his days upon the quays instead of learning sums.He watched his father's ships go out and fishermen come in,And badgered those who stopped at port for tales of waves and wind.





	The Selkie Boy

**Author's Note:**

> This was supposed to be an ordinary, folktale-inspired prose drabble, but... oops? My hand slipped. I've never written anything like this before! Hope you enjoy.

In a village by the sea there lived a merchant's son  
Who spent his days upon the quays instead of learning sums.  
He watched his father's ships go out and fishermen come in,  
And badgered those who stopped at port for tales of waves and wind.

Sometimes he glimpsed another boy who snuck around the docks,  
But if the boy would see him too, he took off like a shot.  
The merchant's son asked other men just who the boy could be,  
But each and every sailor shook his head and turned to sea.

One night the merchant's son went down to clear his fractious mind  
And whisper to the water of his father's scornful ire.  
As he approached the swelling bay a tone pierced through his grief  
Sounding out above the waves and quivering like a leaf.

It was the boy: his keening cry resounded in the bay  
And drew the merchant's son to him, for he could not look away.  
The boy's pale skin and raven hair resolved as he drew near  
And saw that the boy's eyes were red and his cheeks were streaked with tears.

"Why do you cry?" He sat beside the boy and dropped his feet  
Into the gently lapping waves where sea and shoreline meet.  
The boy looked at the merchant's son and fear flashed on his face  
But soon his misery returned with sighs that spoke of fates.

"I cry because I'll never see my family again;  
I must stay here forever, drowning in the world of men."  
The boy's strange proclamation then led to a story grim:  
He was a selkie lad marooned, for a man had snatched his skin.

The man locked it inside his house and slept with it at night,  
For selkie skins bring fortunes bold upon the next day's light.  
The selkie boy could never hope to find his treasured pelt,  
And so he lingered on the shore as if it were a cell.

The merchant's son stifled a gasp, for he had quickly seen  
That the fur upon his _father's_ bed must be this poor selkie's.  
His father's trade ships never sank--they sailed the highest seas--  
And long had sailors wondered how he managed with such ease.

He left the boy that night but thought of nothing else that day.  
His father's ships employed the town; without them, it would fade.  
Could health and wealth be worth a boy who cried out to the sea?  
A little wrong for so much good to other families?

 _No_ , a voice inside him said. It sang a quiet song--  
The same deep notes that sounded when he'd found where he belonged.  
For too long had he been a mouse beneath his father's thumb;  
The time had come to take a risk and see what could be done.

He stole the skin at next day's dawn and ran down to the docks,  
His pockets full of tools and cakes and a balled-up pair of socks.  
The merchant's son sought out the boy, who hid in gunny sacks,  
And passed his supple pelt to him. His chest felt it might crack

When tears--of joy--came forth and caused his heart to swoop and dip.  
The selkie took his shining skin with rev'rent hands and slipped  
Into himself, and was transformed: a seal with bright, dark eyes  
Looked up to thank the merchant's son as sunrise cleared the skies.

And then the seal was gone: he wasted no more precious time.  
So, too, the merchant's son climbed on a ship that he might find  
A hiding place where he could stay until it set to sea  
And wait until he could escape on his great new journey.

He sailed the world from west to east, at home while running free  
And found great things he'd never dreamed in every new city.  
But then one day, a maelstrom rose and frothed the ocean grey  
Until his ship was swamped and he surrendered to the waves--

Then took a breath. He wasn't dead, though he'd fallen overboard.  
The selkie man had saved him. Their hearts beat upon the shore.


End file.
